Tag Archives: gamers

Trump hates handing his phones over for security checks — US President Trump has at least two iPhones, one dedicated for making calls and another one for Twitter. But a new report states Trump isoften reluctant to hand the phones over to the White House security team to check for vulnerabilities. The president reportedly calls it “too inconvenient.” Trump’s Twitter phone has gone for as long as five months without a security assessment. [That just makes us all feel so much safer. Thanks Donald!] But he can’t block people on Twitter.US District Judge Buchwald issued a 75-page ruling [pdf] clearly articulating why Donald Trump cannot block Twitter users: in short, it violates their First Amendment rights.

Speaking of malware, the FBI says reboot your routers — Researchers from Cisco’s Talos security team first disclosed the existence of the malware last Wednesday. The detailed report said the malware infected more than 500,000 devices made by Linksys, Mikrotik, Netgear, QNAP, and TP-Link. Known as VPNFilter, the malware allowed attackers to collect communications, launch attacks on others and permanently destroy the devices with a single command. The report said the malware was developed by hackers working for an advanced nation, possibly Russia, and advised users of affected router models to perform a factory reset, or at a minimum to reboot, and the FBI concurs. [I reboot mine pretty much every day anyway, as thanks to my ISP Vodafone, the bloody broadband disconnects almost every day, forcing a router restart to get the connection back. This has only been going on for a few years, though …]AMD thwarted — A group of German researchers have devised a method to thwart the VM security in AMD’s server chips. Dubbed SEVered (PDF), the attack would potentially allow an attacker, or malicious admin who had access to the hypervisor, the ability to bypass AMD’s Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) protections.Banks and ransomware — A new report from cloud security specialist Carbon Black, based on responses from CISOs at 40 major financial institutions (including six of the top 10 global banks) seeks to better understand the attack landscape. Among the findings are that 90% of financial institutions report being subject to ransomware attacks in 2017.
Cisco Systems has warned that hackers have infected at least 500,000 routers and storage devices in dozens of countries with highly sophisticated malicious software, possibly in preparation for another massive cyber attack on Ukraine. A federal judge in Pennsylvania gave the FBI permission to seize an internet domain that authorities charge a Russian hacking group known as Sofacy was using to control infected devices.
But in good news, Cambridge Analytica has filed for bankruptcy.

Gamers on —Swatting gamers indicted A federal grand jury has indicted the gamer accused in Wichita’s fatal swatting as well as the two gamers involved in the video game dispute that prompted the false emergency call.School shooting game [really!] — Just a week after the Santa Fe High School shooting in Texas that saw 10 people fatally shot and 13 others were wounded, Valve came under fire for a Steam school-shooting game that encourages you to “hunt and destroy” children. Active Shooter, which has been live on Steam and due for release on 6th June, is described by its developer as “a dynamic S.W.A.T. simulator.” The idea is you’re sent in to deal with a shooter at a school, but you can also play as the actual shooter, gunning down school children. There have been 22 school shootings in the US since the beginning of this year.Robots that train themselves in battle tactics by playing video games could be used to mount cyber-attacks, the UK military fears. The warning is in a Ministry of Defence report on artificial intelligence. Researchers in Silicon Valley are using strategy games, such as Starcraft II, to teach systems how to solve complex problems on their own. But artificial intelligence (AI) programs can then “be readily adapted” to wage cyber-warfare, the MoD says.

Planet warming — sea rise blamed on ‘falling rocks’: Mo Brooks is just a plain-spoken man from Alabama with some theories on climate change. Since everything is terrible, he’s a congressman and sits on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee so he has a platform to float some of his entirely unfounded ideas like, for instance, sea levels are rising because rocks keep falling in the ocean. [Hey, America, maybe you should just IQ test everyone running for office? The world would surely thank you.]The diminution of rice — As humans expel billions of metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere and raze vast swaths of forests, the concentration of carbon dioxide in our air hurries ever higher. That has the potential to severely diminish the nutritional value of rice, according to a new study published this week in Science Advances. For people who depend heavily on rice as a staple in their diets, such a nutritional loss would be devastating, says Kristie Ebi, a professor at the University of Washington.Cost of missing climate goals to cost $20 trillion US — There are trillions of reasons for the world to prevent temperatures from rising more than 1.5C, the aspirational target laid out in the Paris climate agreement, according to a new study. If nations took the necessary actions to meet that goal, rather than the increasingly discussed 2C objective, there’s a 60% chance it would save the world more than $20 trillion, according to new work published this week in Nature by scientists at Stanford.Giant worms invading France — In a Peer J study published on May 22, Giant worms chez moi! zoologist Jean-Lou Justine of the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, entomologist colleagues, and Pierre Gros, outline a discovery that “highlights an unexpected blind spot of scientists and authorities facing an invasion by conspicuous large invasive animals.” About 100 citizen scientists ultimately contributed to the assessment of this alien invasion, identifying five giant predatory worm species in France that grow up to 10 inches long. [More blackbirds, maybe?]

Robots, Hitler’s teeth, cockroach milk and NZ monster — Members of the Culinary Union, who work in many of Las Vegas’ biggest casinos, have voted to approve a strike unless a deal is reached soon. On June 1, the contracts of 50,000 union workers (bartenders to guest room attendants) expire, making them eligible to strike. They want higher wages, but the workers are also looking for better job security, especially from robots.Hitlers teeth showed cyanide — It looks like Hitler did indeed ingest cyanide, with an inspection of the fuhrer’s teeth revealing “bluish deposits” that “could indicate a ‘chemical reaction between the cyanide and the metal of the dentures”. [I thought he shot himself? I guess he wisely hedged his bets.]“The teeth are authentic, there is no possible doubt. Our study proves that Hitler died in 1945,” said professor Philippe Charlier. “We can stop all the conspiracy theories about Hitler. He did not flee to Argentina in a submarine, he is not in a hidden base in Antarctica or on the dark side of the moon.”And speaking of cockroaches, some researchers believe insect milk, like cockroach milk, could be the next big dairy alternative. A report in 2016 found Pacific Beetle cockroaches specifically created nutrient-filled milk crystals that could also benefit humans, the Hindustan Times reports. Others report producing cockroach milk isn’t easy, either – it takes 1000 cockroaches to make 100 grams of milk, Inverse reports, and other options could include a cockroach milk pill.New Zealand’s ‘saurian monster’ — At the slaughter yards of Frankton Junction, near Hamilton, New Zealand, in October 1886, workers found a sheep picked clean to the bones. Some creature, they reported, had taken the carcass from the hook where it hung, eaten its flesh, and then departed, leaving only a strange trail of footprints unlike any other they had seen. Men gathered their guns and revolvers and kept watch for its return.
These, New Zealand’s Daily Telegraph reported, were the “undoubted traces of a saurian monster.” The word ‘saurian’ means lizard-like – other papers concluded this monster must be an alligator or crocodile, despite New Zealand’s smattering of living reptiles being, without exception, only a few inches long.

Excerpt from my forthcoming book:“Whereas people will undoubtedly panic, this panic reaction is often overstated in the popular perception and, besides, short-lived. In most cases, according to sociological studies like that of Quarantelli and Dynes, people react immediately to the disaster and its effects. People come together along familiar lines (ie, family and friends) then move as needed to larger groups with which they associate (to religious, sporting or other societal groupings, for example).”

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Mark Webster | Mac NZ

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